Smooth flights, Fred

Charles Shultz's "Joe Cool" version of Snoopy told the story. Wearing sunglasses and a sweater, the college-dog was ready to throw a Frisbee flying disc, a scene repeated all over the country on college campuses and city parks.

The peak of the fad may have passed long ago, but the toy that evolved into a serious sport is now as much a part of American life as any other recreational activity.

It wasn't always that way.

Walter Frederick "Fred" Morrison, who died at his Monroe, Utah, home on Tuesday at the age of 90, invented the toy after playing with a metal cake pan on the beach in California in the early 1950s.

Morrison, a P-51 pilot who was shot down and spent time as a prisoner of war in World War II, improved the pan's aerodynamics, had it molded in plastic and sold it at local fairs as the Pluto Platter during the UFO scare of the 1950s.

It wasn't called the Frisbee until Morrison sold the rights to the Wham-O company, which adapted the name from the Frisbie pie company, whose pie pans also happened to be fliable.

The company's marketing savvy made the product what it is today.

A whole range of disc sports followed, including the Disc Golf played over the new course in Kelley Park, using a range of specialized plastic discs.

As often as not, however, a game of Frisbee involves parents and children, friends, or master and dog, all enjoying time together in the outdoors, thanks to Fred Morrison's brainchild.

"How would you get through your youth without learning to throw a Frisbee," asks the official Frisbee Web site. "As Friesbee discs keep flying through the air, bringing smiles to faces, Fred's spirit lives on. Smooth flights, Fred."